THERE aren't any songs but what a lot of music there is in this version of Oliver Twist.

Electric guitars, banjos, a French accordion - they come blaring out at you like a herd of runaway horses. It's as unsettling as it would be to find out they'd cast Jon Bon Jovi as Fagin.

That honour though goes to Timothy Spall, who is certainly the most well-fed Fagin we've seen round these parts.

That's the trouble with a piece as well-trodden as this. We all have our own idea of what these characters look like, and Lionel Bart's lyrics constantly oompah-ing in your head.

Which makes this a daunting challenge for EastEnders writer Sarah Phelps, who's charged with fashioning this adaptation. So there are tweaks aplenty - including the reintroduction of a certain Mr Monks.

Otherwise all is as it should be. Oliver, played by newcomer William Miller, is a cherub-faced innocent, the Artful Dodger (Adam Arnold) a direct ancestor of EastEnders' Alfie Moon.

For my money, though, it's Sarah Lancashire as workhouse matron Mrs Corney who really sets the tone for the cold, unfeeling world into which orphaned Oliver is born.